


Ten Thousand Things

by Charlie9646



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Dark, Dark Magic, Dark Spells, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Domestic Violence, Emotional Abuse, F/M, Horcruxes, Killing Curse, Lies, Major character death - Freeform, Manipulation, Obsession, Self Harm, Smut, Violence, dark themes, happy ending of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:40:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26457319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646
Summary: Eileen Prince loved Tom Riddle more than anything she ever had before. And yet she was the one who killed him.Everything has a cost: we just can't see it at the time. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. Death is only the beginning.
Relationships: Eileen Prince/Tobias Snape, Eileen Prince/Tom Riddle
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17
Collections: Harry Potter ABCs of Death: A Halloween Fest





	Ten Thousand Things

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my beta Bruixa Buenoni, to RavenpuffLove for always being willing to listen to my ramblings, Artemisia for running this fun and rather challenging fest, and Frumpologist for giving me the courage to take on a pairing, which was so out of my wheelhouse that I have strangely come to love, even if I don’t always give them a happy ending.
> 
> My prompt was obsession

“There are ten thousand things I wish I could say to you.”

Eileen Prince had hoped that Tom Riddle would like her from the moment she had met him. Something about the halfblooded Slytherin drew her like nothing else ever had. When it came to him, she was like a moth to a flame. Eileen was desperate to get his attention and be someone he cared about. Tom was popular, handsome, well liked, and intelligent. 

As they grew older, she fell in love with him and hoped the same could be said about him. Yet Eileen had been the person who killed him. People called him monster, but she was the _real_ one. Eileen had been the one who committed the real crime and yet no one seemed able to see that. 

Why would they? Their world only saw things in black and white. Tom, however, would always be a shade of grey. 

Albus Dumbledore began to defend her in front of Wigzamont's courts. Eileen could only hear the pounding of her own heart. No matter how this ended it would still be horrible. If anyone else had killed her lover she would be calling for their blood. Yet here she sat desperately wishing that they would understand. That she regretted it and would do anything to change it.

In that moment it was Tom’s life or hers. He was the deranged one who had dug through her mind like it was his right to do so. It seemed like it at the time, in the grainy reality of being with him it seemed right, but looking back with the clarity of the life she had lived? It could have been anything. A simple passing thought. How many times had she thought such things about her father that were exactly like that? 

The difference was her father hadn’t done the things that Tom had. Her father didn’t pry himself into her mind ripping it apart due to lack of trust. He wouldn’t have dared do such a thing to her no matter what a fractured bit of a family they were. The things that Tom had done to her and others sent shivers up her spine and made her want to curl up in a ball. Things that left Eileen wishing that she had never met Thomas Marvlo Riddle. 

However, a small part of her simply wished that she would have been better at keeping her mind closed off. It was her fault that everything had happened. Her one instant of failure left Eileen broken and Tom dead.

“As the court has heard from myself and others, Tom Riddle was headed towards destroying himself, young Ms. Prince, and the Wizarding World itself as a whole,” Dumbledore said loudly. “So, with that understanding we should be thanking her for what she has done, not punishing her.”

Eileen stared down at the wood grain on the table under her fingers. She began tracing the circles with slow graceful motions. Each one was quicker than the last. The voices of the court sounded like thunder, though she could not hear them. 

It was like each sentence was hoof beats making their way through her skull. They began changing her life with each one said. Nothing would ever be the same again after this. No matter what choice they made, Eileen knew in heart and soul nothing would ever be the same again. 

It didn’t matter what the verdict was there was no chance that she ever could go back to the way things once had been. Her father would never take her back in. Tom was dead and she was now going to be an unwed mother and not a widowed one either. Tommy had always claimed they would be married once he truly was able to properly care for her.

That day would never come, and she was the cause of it. 

Eileen let herself remember the past. The one that she would never be able to forget and desperately could. Part of her wanted to hold onto it tightly as she could. 

************************

Tom crawled into the tent and laid down next to Eileen. He pulled the blankets tighter around both of them in the makeshift bed that they were sharing. He was cold, just as cold as the night air. His hand snuck its way under her blouse, fingers teasing her. This wasn’t the life he had promised her, but at least they had one another. 

“I love you, Eileen,” he whispered. “I love you so much, but you deserve better than this. You deserve better than me.” 

“I _deserve_ what I decide that I deserve,” Eileen muttered into her pillow. “I want you Tommy and only you. I always have and always will.” She pulled him close kissing him. Pulling away for a second, she tugged his shirt over his head running his fingers over Tom’s chest.

They were always like this - struggling to say how they felt about one another - but they were far better at showing it. Tom’s touch was like an icy burn that sent shivers down her that had nothing to do with cold. Eileen sat up, stripping off her own trousers and Tom did the same. 

They both sat up just staring at one another in the soft lantern light. Tom was like something out of a dream, his soft jet-black loose curls that framed his face, and sharp cheekbones. A lanky frame with hard muscles underneath. His eyes though, were a strange crystal blue-silver that could cut you better than any dagger on earth. 

Eileen leaned down, taking his hard cock into her mouth sucking it down as far as she could. Tom hissed and reached down to grasp her hair, holding her in the place that he wanted her. Looking up, she watched him. The man was leaning back against the pillows hissing through his teeth with his eyes ever so slightly shut. 

Eileen wrapped her hand around the part of his cock that she couldn’t fit in her mouth. She wanted him inside of her, this yearning feeling that was in the pit of her stomach. 

“I want to come inside of you, properly,” Tom said, trying to be seductive, tugging at her hair harshly causing her to hiss. “I want to fuck you.” 

Pulling away, Eileen said with sharp sarcasm, “That’s the perfect way to charm your way into my knickers, Mr. Riddle.”

Tom’s face fell as he gave her a rather menacing look. She knew how he felt about that name, but it slipped out by accident.

“Don’t call me that, you bloody witch,” he spat. “You know I don’t like that stupid, bloody, Muggle name. And don’t you fucking call me Tommy, either. You know how I feel about it.”

Tom grabbed her harshly as if Eileen was merely a ragdoll and not a person. He was inside her then filling her. Shoving her face into the pillow as he fucked her from behind. Reaching around to twist her nipple. It hurt. Tom knew it would and that’s exactly why he did it. A whine she couldn’t stop escaped her lips. 

“Harder, please, just like that. Gods, right there.” 

They drove each other closer and closer to the edge. Taking pleasure from one another. His hands like branding irons on her hips, gripping her tightly. Eileen’s hair clung to her face. Tom pulled her back by her hair. His lips nipping at her neck. She tried to find purchase on the pillows underneath her. His finger went to her clit dragging her along with him not long after he came. 

Tom fell on top of her slamming her softly into their bedding. He rolled off her and laid down on his back pulling her close afterwards. Eileen laid her head on his chest listening to his heartbeat underneath her ear. Tom brushed Eileen’s hair out of her face and pulled the covers around them. He silently and wandlessly _noxed_ the lamp.

Together they drifted off to sleep. Trying to desperately keep the chill out failing to do so. There were ten thousand things that Eileen wished to say to him: _I love you. This is all I want or need. This is a life I love_ . Most of all, Eileen wanted to say to him: _Why in the bloody hell won't you let me in? Truly._

They were trying to make a life for themselves and yet Tom continued to put up walls. Keeping her at a distance. She said nothing. Because Eileen knew the truth, it wasn’t worth wasting her bloody breath. Thomas Marvlo Riddle was many things, but open was not one of them. 

Neither of them was totally asleep, both of their thoughts plaguing them and keeping them awake. 

“Tomorrow, I promise, Eileen,” Tom whispered. “I will find us somewhere warm and inside.”

She said nothing but nodded, hoping that the man understood just how grateful she was. Sleep overtook her fully. In her dreams Eileen allowed her mind to wander to the life that she hoped to one day she would have with Tom together.

***********************

Eileen woke up with a start at a soft crash. The light streamed through the slightly open tent flap. Tom was already up; hopefully making breakfast. 

She dug around for her clothes, the ones that were mostly clean. If they didn’t end up finding somewhere to stay tonight tomorrow Eileen knew she was going to have to take their clothes down to the river and wash them. She groaned loudly at the very thought. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case. She didn’t want to end up doing that. 

Wrapping her cloak as tightly as she could around her, Eileen joined Tom by the fire - his hands were wrapped around his mug of coffee. 

“Do you love me, _truly_ love me?” Tom cried, madness filling his eyes. It was as if something inside him had truly snapped. He was sometimes like this, but never this bad. Tom leapt up grabbing her by the throat. 

Eileen felt him sneaking into her mind - she no longer bothered to hide it after all these years. Normally she was prepared for such things. Able to give the man exactly what he wanted to see. The surface things and sometimes even sometimes her deeper feelings. That was the best way to deal with Tom. Giving him nothing would only anger him. Giving him everything would make the man irrational and insane.

Eileen knew that she should have been prepared for this and yet she wasn’t. She couldn’t stop it as thoughts slipped through. The ones that Eileen didn’t want to. Love was part of it. Whole hearted and true love, but also the fear. The worry and the apprehension that was like the exploding cauldron slamming through their connection. 

Through it, Eileen knew it this moment _her_ Tom was gone and left only the bits of him was the monster. Something had changed and it couldn’t be fixed. It was him or her that would die. Eileen wouldn’t care if she did, but she had their child to think about. Pulling her wand out she whispered the curse, striking the man down and meaning it with every single bit of herself. Every fiber. 

Eileen Prince was first and foremost a mother. That was all that mattered to her in the end. “ _Avada Kedavra,”_ the words were spoken and the meaning behind the bright green light shot from her wand, striking her once lover now a madman, dead. His body crumbled down next to her as if he were a marionette doll whose strings had been cut. 

Screams filled Eileen’s ears. A horrible and wretched sound. They sounded like someone was torturing some poor creature and yet it was _she_ who was wailed. Eileen Prince was the monster. She was the torturer and the killer. Staring down at her fingers, she saw that they were soaked in this red substance. Blood. It was blood, her mind supplied. But it wasn’t Tom’s. The man lay near her dead as a doornail, his skin as pale as snow and bloodless. 

It was _her_ blood. Her blood, dripping from her self-inflicted wounds as she tried to desperately make herself feel something. Anything. 

It was then that she saw him, _Albus Dumbledore._ Her once professor and headmaster of Hogwarts. He stood above her in his silly dark purple robes. His grey hair had grown out over the years. Now only silver instead of the red it had once been. Albus wrapped the shivering, terrified woman in his cloak and Apparating Eileen from the forest of Dean, the land of horrors. 

“We need to take him with us!” Eileen screamed at him, trying to wrench herself from his grasp before the magic overtook her, dragging her along with him. Softer she whispered, “It's all my fault.”

_Surely, he was taking her to the Aurors,_ her mind supplied. _Turning her in for the murder that she was. She deserved every bloody bit of what was to come._ Tom wasn’t the monster, Eileen herself was.

Her vision blackened but not before Eileen got one last glimpse of Hogwarts. The castle loomed over them in all its glory. 

***********************

The men in the crowded room talked about her, not to her. About the poor woman who made all the wrong choices, the one who became enthralled with the dark wizard, and with the one who was “pleading her belly.” That it was Thomas Riddle's _obsession_ that led to his death. Not the efforts of a worthless and useless witch. 

She was bane of existence to her family. Eileen was the reason the Prince family came crashing back down to earth. The court made their choice. Eileen Aurora Prince would spend the rest of her life without magic. Not a Muggle, because they wouldn’t have the understanding of the world that they lived in. Not like a squib who knew of it but never got to feel it. Who never could truly understand the rush of power that could flow through you, changing the world around you and do so many wonderful things. No, Eileen would end up being something rather _unspeakable._

The thing she would become was a witch with a burned out magical core. Something broken and wretched. All who knew her would turn away from her. But with this, her son would have a chance at life. A _real_ life. Eileen herself might never be able to go back into the magical world, but it would be worth it for Severus to have a real chance at life. 

* * *

The day that Eileen was introduced to Tobias she knew there would never be a bit of love between them. He didn’t speak much and spent a large part of the time just staring out the window. The man was a squib who had chosen to live in the Muggle world. That was for the best though, wasn’t it? It would be safer for them both, or so Dumbledore claimed. 

The man understood her situation or at least that’s what Albus claimed. They were married in a simple ceremony in a plain white church on the seashore. It was beautiful, quiet and empty. As the weeks passed Eileen mused that there must be some sort of spell on the man, sometimes he just seemed like a boat adrift at sea. 

It felt like she had swallowed a stone. _Why would there be a spell on her husband? Why did it seem like he was being forced to be with her?_

Eileen picked up a pen and wrote down that exact question to Dumbledore. She shoved it into an envelope and tied it to her owl’s leg. The brown creature flew out of the window, its wings flapping in the clear blue sky as it made its way to Hogwarts. 

The dishes needed to be done. The laundry needed to be put away. Their home was about as distant from where Eileen had grown up as anything could be. Gone were the house elves ready to do her every whim. Gone were her beautiful dresses, long since sold trying to keep them afloat. Tobias had drunk most of that money away though. 

Sometimes, once in a blue moon, she would catch a bit of the man who was not subdued by magic. Eileen did not like what she saw. Maybe it was better to leave it as it was. It wasn’t as if Eileen could leave him. She had no magic, no money, and was blasted off the Prince family tree for killing the man who would have brought the wizarding world back to greatness. 

Eileen felt as if she was backed against the wall with a knife pressed against her throat. No matter what she did there was no _good_ choice. No right way to turn. 

There was her newborn baby to think about. It no longer mattered what was best for her, but the child sleeping in his crib upstairs. Instead of doing the chores as she was supposed to, Eileen paced across the scuffed wood floor back and forth, her long limbs carrying her. 

_Everything would be easier if she still had her magic,_ she thought. _Every single bloody thing._

But it was gone. Slipping through her fingers like sand, gone before she really got a chance to live. Dumbledore gave her no answer and her owl never returned; that was an answer in itself, wasn’t it? Eileen Snape was going to have to do what she had always done, survive. It was a part of her very nature. 

Slytherins were not the bravest, the kindest or even the smartest, but they were the ones who survived and that’s all that mattered in the end. Cunning was in her very skin and bones. It was her armor and shield. It was her reason to fight and to live. 

Tobias came home different that night. Drunk and screaming about Merlin only knew what. Slapping Eileen when she dared ask him what was wrong. The next day in the post was a letter with no return address and five simple words, _the spell has been removed._

No answer to why, how, or what. But it was done and doubtful that it would ever be replaced upon her husband. Eileen had made her bed and now it was time to learn how to lie in it. She was now no more of a witch than her husband was a wizard. Severus on the other hand… One day the boy would go to Hogwarts and he would get to be someone.

Like her knitting on the bedside table, she planned to shape the boy. To turn him into something that Eileen herself would never get to be once again: A proper Slytherin and a proper wizard. Even if his mother would never again be the proper witch that she once had been. It was in his very blood after all.

Eileen stared at herself in the cracked mirror. Her wavy black hair that hasn’t been brushed in days. She was pale under olive skin. Her eyes were as dark as midnight. Eileen’s nose has always been too large, too narrow and by far too pointy. Her house dress hung off of her like a tent. She had always been all angles, but this was worse by far. It didn’t matter though, Eileen had spent her whole life fighting and this wasn’t any different than that. 

“I will survive this,” Eileen whispered. “I can survive anything. I swear it to Merlin I will see the other side of this.”

****************************

Seventeen years later

There were four days that had changed Eileen’s life forever: The day that she had killed Tom; the day that her magic had been stripped from her; and the day that Severus had been born. Even with each of the impacts of all those things being the day she realized that her son had taken a Dark Mark had been by far the worst. 

Severus looked like her, which Eileen was rather grateful for. It meant that people didn’t ask too many questions and just assumed he was Tobias’. The day she saw his disfigurement, her boy had been elbow deep in soap suds doing the dishes. 

“Mum, would mind getting the rest of the dishes off the table?” Severus asked. “I am going to go visit some friends later and the sooner I can get this done, the better.”

Tobias was passed out on the couch. A bomb could go off next to the man and he would likely only blink and then fall back asleep. At least when he was drunk. 

“Mother,” he grumbled, yanking his hands out of the suds. It was then that Eileen saw it. The glaringly unable to be missed skull and snake sharp against her son’s pale skin. 

“Severus,” Eileen cried. “Why on earth did you do it?” 

“Because the Dark Lord is right, mother,” Severus spat. “We are better than them and they should serve us! They are without magic and yet we are the ones who hide away. In the world he’s creating? People like that bastard will know his place.” He jabbed his long pale fingers at the sleeping drunk. 

“Get out,” she said harshly. “You seem to think that you are better than the man who raised you then you should go.”

Severus wiped his hands off and stalked over to his mother, looming over her. His feet slamming into the stained linoleum floor. “The man who raised me? I thought he was my father.”

Gone was the boy Eileen knew so well. Gone was her son, who would pick her flowers and pleaded with her to read him a bedtime story. The one who was kind and quiet. He now was an angry young man. Someone who felt the world had spent his whole life kicking him and it was time to start kicking back. 

Eileen knew it well, as well as anything that she ever had. It was the same burning desire that she had seen a lifetime ago in Tom’s eyes. They did say boys were like their fathers, didn’t they? 

“Answer the bloody fucking question mother!” Severus grabbed her shaking her. “Or have you become too much of a _Muggle_ to even do that?” He said the term as if it was a slur and not something that people just were. 

“He’s not your father,” Eileen cried. 

“I knew!” He laughed, his face filling with wretched glee. The outside matching the madness within. His far too long inky black hair falling into his pale face. “I knew that I couldn’t be related to that bastard. Who is my father then? And why did you keep me from him?” 

Eileen said nothing. Not a bloody damn thing. Escaping within her own mind trying desperately to put up the shields that no longer existed.

“Please tell me?” Severus pleaded, “I just want to know who I am and where I belong.” 

“He’s dead, Severus,” Eileen whispered. “Your father is dead and your choices are going to lead to the exact same fucking thing for you. I do not desire watching it. So please, do me a favor and leave.”

“You are a fool, mother,” he said. “I am going to be someone you will be proud of just you wait and see.”

Severus left Eileen standing there in the kitchen in the home that she never wanted. Along with a man that she never wanted to marry. Tobias slept on, the drink numbing and deafening him to the world around him. Part of her wanted to cry. Part of her wanted to scream. To howl and plead to whatever Gods there were and Merlin himself to make things better. To change things. To give her the life that she had so long ago and her magic. 

Not for the foolish shite that Eileen used it for so long ago, but to protect her son from what was left of the man she long ago loved. Something that she had been so desperately trying to do before the child was born. The burning desire in her very bones. Eileen Prince needed to protect her son from what was left of his own father. 

Thomas Marvlo Riddle might be dead, but what some fool had brought back from the dead was the worst parts of him. Gone was her Tommy and what was left of the man was Lord Voldermort. Now see needed to find him and try to convince him to leave alone the only thing Eileen had left: Her son. 

* * *

Eileen walked the cobblestone streets of magical London. Her cloak was pulled tightly around her - trying her very best to keep out the chill. No one bothered looking at her. It was as if she was invisible, but the truth is she might as well be. Eileen was nothing to them. Without magic she was nothing. No better than the squib street sweeper Eileen watched out of the corner of her eye. 

Hagrid, the half giant, student a few years above her was now better than she was. He might not be able to use magic after being expelled. With his snapped wand, but at least the man had it. It didn’t matter, now was not the time to pull more salt into her wounds. Eileen had avoided this place Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. To be honest, she had avoided it all. 

The wizarding world didn’t want her, so she claimed to want nothing to do with it either. Eileen crossed into Knockturn Alley, the bleak and dark shops drawing her in, but she knew it was no longer safe to enter them. It wasn’t just Tom who had been drawn to Dark Magic she had once been too. 

Maybe that was the reason Severus had the desire for such knowledge, it was in his very blood. 

Eileen found the meeting place easily, pulling out a cigarette and lighting as she waited. Silvery blue smoke billowed around her like snakes. The nicotine burned her lungs but calmed her soul. Whatever bit Tom she once knew was left is what Eileen had to make her case to. There had to be a tiny shard of _her_ Tom left in the ghoul that now inhabited his body. 

Or maybe she was more of a fool than she thought to assume such a thing. 

Eileen heard him before she saw him. The sounds of his boots or it might be the sound of her own heart trying to beat out of her chest. Tom stood before her. Gone was the handsome aristocratic man and in his place was some stricken by both dark magic and time. Tom was shrouded in his cloak, his face pale and bloodless, but his eyes were the worst they were the color of blood.

“Eileen,” Tom said, as he reached for her though Eileen shoved his hand off her. This wasn’t the time for such things. His fingers were as cold as death. “I know why you are here, and our son has made his own choice… Just as you have made yours.”

“You are supposed to be…” Eileen whispered, staring at him trying to put the pieces together why the man wasn’t a corpse and rotting. 

“Dead?” He asked, grinning at her showing off his still bright white teeth. “Magic, more so _dark_ magic, is a wonderful thing. You and Dumbledore saw what you were supposed to see. Death is part of the ritual to split one’s soul, both the death of someone who is killed and the death of yourself. It might not have worked without bloodshed, but your insanity I can thank for the latter.”

Voldermort held onto her face tightly in his hand, his bone like fingers digging into her skin. 

“Let go of me!” She cried, “let go of me or I will scream!”

“No one cares, Eileen,” Voldemort bellowed. “You are no better than a squib to them anymore. You played right into my hand. Making _our_ son hate Muggles just as much as I do. I should be thanking you for it all. I want you back with me. I can fix you, make you as you were and we can be a family, a _real_ family once again. We can rule this world together side by side.”

“And what if I don’t want that?” Eileen asked, pulling away from him. “I like the life I have, Tom, and want nothing to do with what you are offering.” 

Voldemort laughed mockingly, his frame shaking as he did so. As if she had something so utterly funny that he couldn’t even begin to understand. “You would rather live your life with that beast of a squib? The man who treats you no better than a fucking dog. Severus told me about _Tobias Snape._ The Eileen I knew would never have allowed someone to treat her like that.”

“The Eileen you knew is dead. Seems she’s the only one who died there that morning in the forest of Dean. Beyond that? She also allowed a man to use her for a Dark magic ritual. I would rather be this than to be her once again, at least now I know who I am. Stay away from my son. And get that bloody mark off him.”

“My mark is forever, Mrs. Snape. It cannot be removed,” he said with conviction. “Something it seems you know nothing about. _Our_ son has made his own choice just as you have made yours.”

“There is nothing left to say then, is there?” She asked, though Eileen did not expect an answer. “We all have made our choices, and nothing can be undone.”

“Have you ever told our son who his father is?” Voldemort asked her. “His _real_ father?” 

“No,” Eileen snapped. “And I would prefer you to keep it that way.”

Tom Riddle said nothing as he disappeared into the night. Leaving Eileen standing there in Knockturn Alley, a place long ago that felt as safe as home to her but now was like a haunted house leaving her waiting for something to pop out. In that instant it truly sunk in - she couldn’t save Severus no matter how much Eileen wanted to. But she could save herself. The money that she stowed away over the years was heavy in her cloak pocket. 

Eileen had a way to escape this world. Now after all these years she knew enough about the Muggle world to survive on her own. With each step out of Knockturn and back into Diagon. The sun was beginning to rise, and the morning light started to break through. Long ago Eileen would have done anything to get back her magic. Just as she would have done anything for Severus and Tom, but those days were gone slipping through her fingers like sand. You could not help someone who was determined to not take it. 

It was time for her to put herself first. Eileen decided to get breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron and start making her plans for the future. 

“Mrs. Snape,” Lily called out as she ran towards her. Her bright hair was flying in the wind. “How have you been?”

“Good, Lily,” Eileen said. “I am actually going to get breakfast; would you like to join me? And it’s Ms. Prince actually.”

“I would love to, if it wouldn’t be imposing after…”

“Your issues with my son are not issues with me,” she said. “I would love it if you would join me. I have some questions that you might be able to answer anyway.”

“Let’s go then,” Lily said, as they made their way to the pub. When some doors close others open. Life is what you make of it and you are the only one who has control of it. 

Long ago there were ten thousand things Eileen wanted to say to Tommy, but now she hoped to never see the man again. If Severus wanted her help one day, she would give it to him. He would always be her son; nothing would ever change that, and she would always be his mother. 

* * *

Nearly two decades later an owl landed on her windowsill. A letter bound to his leg. Untying it she realized it was from Severus and he needed her help. Picking up her pen Eileen wrote him back. Severus needed a place to go and she had a spare room. 

Eileen sat there staring out at the life she had created. The robin’s egg blue kettle, the cheery yellow walls, and seaside outside of her window. It wasn’t much but they could share it. Just as she had long ago found her escape, her safe harbor, Eileen hoped her son would to. 

Tom Riddle took everything from her once, and now it was time for her to take _her_ son. The magical world cared little for those that it used and spit out, but the Muggle world was one for second chances. Or even ten thousand. 


End file.
